Anti-Trump protests too little, too late

I was at once heartbroken and angry when I saw thousands of protesters take to the streets in the wake of the stunning election of Donald Trump as president.

As I watched the spectacle play out, my emotions, already scraped raw by the bigotry and division I’d witnessed during Trump’s campaign, suddenly went numb. It was as if I’d fallen asleep in one country and awakened in another.

I looked into the faces of the enraged young people speaking out against Trump’s policy proposals, and each bigoted idea that Trump touted during his campaign played back in my mind. Banning Muslims from the country. Walling off the undocumented immigrants whom Trump called criminals and rapists. Singling out political refugees based on their countries of origin. Nationally instituting the ineffective stop and frisk policy that allows police to disproportionately target blacks and Latinos. Racially profiling Latinos in connection with a “Deportation Force.”

I thought of those policies, and reflected upon the fact that Trump had been elected in spite of them. Then — as I watched the protesters shout slogans into the cool November air — the only question that mattered popped into my mind.